Smart metering and energy access programs: an approach to energy poverty reduction in sub-Saharan Africa

Access to electricity is a global challenge, with more than half of the energy-poor population located in sub-Saharan Africa alone. By considering energy access frameworks designed for the planning of energy systems for these environments, such as the Sustainable Energy Access Planning (SEAP), this study aims to analyse and evaluate the applicability of smart metering (SM) technologies and actual energy data to this framework. Data applicability to each SEAP assessment component and for monitoring is investigated. For a specific sub-Saharan country, secondary energy data is collected to define an energy profile used as input to the SM experiment to generate new, simulated data. The analysis then focuses on how this primary energy data applies to the different SEAP framework components, and as input to related applications for renewable energy system analysis and load forecasting. Current results show how usage patterns can be identified from interval-based consumption data to define energy demand, cost, and affordability, while also used to derive environmental data towards the benefit and sustainability aspects of the energy system to be implemented; moreover, network quality and energy system status is measured with real-time usage and alarm data.